Post

NVIDIA's power transition came more suddenly and heavily than the market expected. On November 12, NVIDIA's board announced that the company's founder Jensen Huang had resigned from his positions as president, CEO, and director, effective immediately. Chief Financial Officer Colette Kress was appointed interim CEO while continuing as CFO until a permanent successor is determined. The board has initiated a search for internal and external candidates and appointed former Synopsys CEO Harvey C. Jones as the company's first board chairman. This is not an ordinary "founder retirement." The trigger was a statement issued by NVIDIA's board on November 8. The statement said that, given recent reports indicating Jensen Huang had become a "target of foreign intelligence operations," the board decided to launch an independent investigation, conducted by an independent board committee with assistance from external independent lawyers. The board stated at the time that there was no reason to believe national security or NVIDIA secrets had been compromised, and Jensen Huang himself pledged to cooperate with the investigation. But the situation rapidly escalated in the following days: the independent directors hired former U.S. acting prosecutor Joon H. Kim and Wall Street law firm Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz to lead the investigation, and shareholder class-action lawsuits also emerged. The reports mentioned related individuals, including a Chinese businesswoman identified as a spy by U.S. intelligence agencies, and another NVIDIA executive who reported directly to Jensen Huang. Jensen Huang sent an internal message to employees on November 8